Quick Critique – Matt Favero

I decided to respond to the most common doubt expressed about my illuminated crosswalk idea:

Would this solution be too expensive to implement?

My intuition said that my idea would be pretty inexpensive. However, I decided to do some research to determine a price estimate. What I found was pretty surprising.

In my idea’s basic form, it consists of three significant components: motion sensors, LED lights, and some sort of controller for each crosswalk. To factor into price, there is also some additional costs like wires, glue, and labor costs which I will not estimate.

As you can see, the parts cost is only $12.66. This is without bulk discounts, too. If a city were to order this they surely could pay 20-80% less. Don’t forget, though, this number does not include labor costs.

Perhaps one could argue labor costs might add up once installed at many intersections. Well, here’s a price to compare it to:

“It costs the taxpayer $250,000 to $500,000 to purchase and install a traffic signal”